Lady Macbeth

"A much anticipated release, as I've read Juniper and Thorn and A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid. Those books had such an impact on me, so it's hard not to feel disappointed by this book. I can see what the author was trying to do, but I just don't think it all came together in the end.SPOILER It either needed 1.) more fantasy elements - like the characters actually using their powers. Roscille discovers the wide extent of her powers in the middle of the book, and doesn't even try to experiment just a little bit. Instead she waits til the very end of the book to do anything. I get that the story is supposed to be about not realizing how much power you actually have, but she literally kills 3 people with her eyes. At the end of the book the character's narration says something about not knowing if her power only came from men because Macbeth technically ordered her to do it, but I just don't feel that's a good enough explanation for not trying to use her powers. I know it's supposed to be symbolic, but it's hard to ignore when the fantasy elements are a big part of the plot. Or 2.) More romance: Lysander the love interest is introduced almost halfway through thr book, and we actually don't see him for a big chunk of the second half. The romantic rescue at the end of the story felt a little cheap because we don't get to see a lot of the 2 interacting. What about romantic scheming? We could see more of them interacting(if even from a distance or message by pigeon or something). He's a dragon and she has control powers. Surely they can come up with something better than "see you later I guess". The 2 scheming against Macbeth and Fleance slowly until it all builds up at the end would have been nice. Could have made the Fleance subplot finish in a more satisfying way. Or 3.) More women. For a book that uses a lot of neon pink, we sure don't get a whole lot of female perspectives. Was kind of expecting to to see more women protecting and having conversations with each other."

"Beautifully written. I love female revenge. 🥰"

"Lady Macbeth is already one of the most influential and powerful women in literature . Why did you change that??? One of the worst books I’ve read in a while."

"Take a shot every time you read the words blood-soaked thighs/sheets/marriage bed. "

"oopsies, you girlbossed too close to the sun, and your feminist retelling became a sexist watered down version of the character :/"

"I really love reading Macbeth at school It is one of my favorite Shakespeare stories. I like how Lady Macbeth has a story and a backstory of how she married Macbeth, how she became of who she is which I love.But the bad part of the book is that the chapters are long which i didn't like i think the author was trying to use Shakespeare language and use modern language in the book so it was a little bit hard to understand and fellow at the sometime."

"I was so excited for this book and sorely disappointment. It felt like the shadowiest reflection of the plot of Macbeth with none of the complexity. All characters seemed stripped of their power, and it felt shallow at best. "

"Not sure what to make of this book. On one hand it was a very enjoyable read. I liked the fresh and probably historically accurate (not an expert so I’m not sure) take on the marriage culture of medieval nobility. <br/><br/>I did not care for Lady MacBeth’s new character. She went from being a badass, to being a scared, prejudiced, clever but foolish little girl. Granted this opened the way for some decent character development, but I’m not sure this gain was worth the sacrifice of one of the baddest (pun intended) literary characters of all time."

"<strong>Extreme cliff hanger that left me not really caring to continue</strong><br/><br/>I wanted to like this book. I wanted to power through all four books in the series like a mass binge reading session. However the characters felt under developed and the story line starts so early in Grouch's life that there isn't time to fully expand on the plot. It moves so quickly and really Karsak has to considering this first book is under 270 pages in length and 32 of those pages are dedicated to acknowledgements and the first three chapters of her Alice and Wonderland steampunk novel. Some of the themes jump around a lot and things aren't cohesive enough for a reader to grasp the importance of certain events. Nothing in the book announces itself as"Here I am! This you should pay attention to!" Your left jumping from situation to situation trying to decipher which vein the story is going to take out of the four or five directions it seems to be putting forth at once. Again none of the events have any cohesiveness. It's a shame because the concept is a spectacular one. I was excited to see where this book would take me and in the end I was left wanting for something else to read."